Thanks, everyone. I just grabbed a Kramer VS-88V for 85€.
I appreciate the insight and look into your setups. Rik, I can’t see you as you are camouflaged against your screens! 
I use an 8x8 matrix switcher for all my composite sources, whether to feed them to external mixers, to fluxus duo and/or cortex, or for feedback loops. It’s great and saves so much time faffing with cables!
It has memory recall as well. Love it. I just used it for a live performance, button mashing and changing sources all night. It’s an Elca MX88 (i also have a kramer one but it’s not as ‘performance’ friendly as the buttons are small)
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Has anyone recently discovered/produced any other video rate switchers?
I’ve stumbled upon this post for the second/third time and still haven’t bought a Matrixarchate or A-150-8 
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I used to see loads of switchers on eBay, but I’ve not looked for years. Many were matrix switchers for full component and sync for VGA. Other matrix mixers were composite or S-Video only.
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another rack mount answer
I’ve been looking at a certain lineup for a while. You can find really good deals on ebay.
it just depends on what kind of system you are wanting to put together.
I thought about replacing a couple of my matrices with one of these but honestly I’d rather wait to re-rack everything until the next time I upgrade. At this point I think my next upgrade will be something along the lines of ATEM Constellation HD | Blackmagic Design most likely the low or mayyyybe middle range
I love the idea about having multiple freely assignable outputs and then with the middle range and higher you are essentially getting 2+ entire switchers that share inputs whose outputs can be routed into and around each other however you want.
these two are closer to one of the units I’ve already got (kramer 719) lots of various inputs and an output that can do VGA/component with stuff like PiP, freeze, hue, sat, brightness etc… My original thought for TBC2 was to have two of these units. I had actually bought a second (a 728 I believeO unit but it had several stuck front interface buttons which kept it in a perpetual OSD loop not matter what I tried. There is a lot of variation so you can probably find one with the collection of inputs that matters most to you.
this was my second thought…why have two different switchers when you can just rack mount one bigger switcher that gives you two independent outputs! It is a bit bigger and offers a lot of multi inputs. I saw a version a while back that has HDMI inputs rather than DVI but I haven’t seen those pop up as much
I hadn’t seen this type of unit until this morning when I was looking for some examples. Honestly these would be the move for me if I hadn’t found those constellation switchers. This seems like a fantastic way to incorporate SD/HD systems together.
they are like 5 switches stuffed into one package that drive another scaled switcher. So if you were sending your composite input through to the scaled output you could also be using the unscaled output to go somewhere else in the system.
lots of the newer units have USB inputs so look out for that if it is something you are interested in. Also make sure to do yourself a favor and read the manuals of any unit like this you are thinking about incorporating into your system to save yourself time/money/headache
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Yes, those are the kinds of matrix switches I’ve seen on eBay. The Constellation will be much more expensive, but it includes effects that the Kramer switchers don’t, like keyers. For example, (I suspect) you could use the control software to set the internal t-bar to 50% (or whatever) and add up to 10 lines of delay. I imagine that would be a very useful feedback combo.
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This!! Exactly what I was after
I’ve been happy with my switches out of the rack so looking for options inside/lzx standard
Although with the introduction of HD workflow, maybe it’s time to consider some new bits…
I’ll look into those units you posted, some look pretty cool. I do very much like being able to route multiple sources in and to multiple outputs, so will probably look for the same kind of thing
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Looked at one of those Kramer routers and saw it had “CV” inputs. Got excited for a second… do these have external voltage control of some kind? Can I automate switching from the modular rig?
No. They meant “CVBS”.
Kramer gets rid of the BS. 
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Hiya, hope you can help… and please forgive the random query.
I have one of those MX88 matrix switchers which I’m very happy with. Unfortunately I’ve never had a user manual for it. Would you happen to have a PDF of the manual you could email please? Or a maybe link to one online?
I’ve emailed the manufacturers and so far have had no response.
Many thanks
Neil
Absolutely! I got this email from them in response to the Elca MX88 Matrix Switcher (writing in full so it’s easier for others to find)
www.elca-italy.com/download/sw/MCS/MCS201.zip
OS: Windows 98SE / XP.
Unzip *.zip into a empty disk.
Run setup.exe to start the installation of the software.
Manual with RS232 commands:
Thank you so much!
The domain in those links appears to be down, but adding the manual name to elca.eu I managed to find the right one… couldn’t have done it without your help, so thank you again
For any one else’s reference, it’s at https://www.elca.eu/download/sw/MX/MX88_E4R1-EN.PDF
…you might want to check out transcribe from @cyberboy666 : it allows to control Extron- and Kramer-switchers via MDI-to-RS232…
…so with the help/detour of/via a CV-to-MIDI-Module those switchers could be controlled from the modular…
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Thank you for linking this, definitely going to pick one up. Perfect for using external controllers/sequencers and linking to all the classic video gear!